Bandes dessinées, abbreviated BDs and also referred to as Franco-Belgian comics, are comics that are usually originally in French and created for readership in France and Belgium. These countries have a long tradition in comics, separate from that of English-language comics. Belgium is a mostly bilingual country, and comics originally in Dutch are culturally a part of the world of bandes dessinées, even if the translation from French to Dutch far outweighs the other direction.
Iznogoud is a French comics series featuring an eponymous character, created by the comics writer René Goscinny and comics artist Jean Tabary. The comic series chronicles the life and times of Iznogoud, the Grand Vizier of the Caliphate of Baghdad at an undefined period. His greatest desire is to replace the Caliph, leading him to repeatedly utter the phrase "I want to be Caliph instead of the Caliph", a phrase that has been adopted in French and some other European languages to characterize overly ambitious people. Iznogoud is supported by his dimwitted yet faithful servant, Wa'at Alahf.
Jean Van Hamme is a Belgian novelist and comic book writer. He has written scripts for a number of Belgian/French comic series, including Histoire sans héros, Thorgal, XIII and Largo Winch.
Largo Winch is a Belgian comic book series by Philippe Francq and Jean Van Hamme, published by Dupuis. It started as a series of novels by Van Hamme in the late 1970s, but stopped due to a lack of success and the huge amount of work Van Hamme had in the meantime with his comic books. When artist Philippe Francq wanted to start a series with Van Hamme, he revived his old hero, and reworked the novels into the first albums of the comic book series. Later, more stories followed.
Grzegorz Rosiński is a Polish comic book artist, illustrator and painter. He is best known for providing the artwork for the series Thorgal. His other notable work includes art drawn in the Hans and Chninkel series of comic books.
Yoko Tsuno is a comics album series created by the Belgian writer Roger Leloup published by Dupuis in Spirou magazine since its debut in 1970. Through thirty volumes, the series tell the adventures of Yoko Tsuno, a female electrical engineer of Japanese origin surrounded by her close friends, Vic Video and Pol Pitron. Their adventures bring them to, among other places, Belgium (Bruges), Germany, Scotland, Japan, Hong Kong, Indonesia and also into outer space. The stories are heavily technology driven, with concepts like robot dragons, suspended animation, time travel, and even an alien species called the Vineans. Despite the often exotic settings and science-fiction plot lines, the stories generally remain realistic on the personal level between the characters and friendship, love and spirituality are some of the key themes of the series. The art is drawn in Ligne claire style, although having originally started out in the Marcinelle style. When depicting real-world settings, Leloup aspires to be as true to reality as possible, with places like Burg Katz or Rothenburg ob der Tauber depicted with almost photographic skill.
This Prize Awarded by the Audience - Cultura is awarded to comics authors at the Angoulême International Comics Festival since 1989.
Luiz Eduardo de Oliveira, more famous under his pen name Léo is a Brazilian comics creator.
Le Lombard, known as Les Éditions du Lombard until 1989, is a Belgian comic book publisher established in 1946 when Tintin magazine was launched. Le Lombard is now part of Média-Participations, alongside publishers Dargaud and Dupuis, with each entity maintaining its editorial independence.
The Prix Saint-Michel is a series of comic awards presented by the city of Brussels, with a focus on Franco-Belgian comics. They were first awarded in 1971, and although often said to be the oldest European comics awards, they are actually the second oldest comics award in Europe still presented, behind the Adamson Awards. Their history is quite erratic though, with a long pause between 1986 and 2002.
Yakari is a Franco-Belgian comic book series, aimed at a younger audience, originally written by Job, and illustrated by Derib, both from Switzerland. The series is now written by Frenchman Joris Chamblain.
The Smurfs is a Belgian comic series, created by cartoonist Peyo. The titular creatures were introduced as supporting characters in an already established series, Johan and Peewit in 1958, and starred in their own series from 1959. More than forty Smurf comic albums have been created, 16 of them by Peyo. Originally, the Smurf stories appeared in Spirou magazine with reprints in many different magazines, but after Peyo left the publisher Dupuis, many comics were first published in dedicated Smurf magazines, which existed in French, Dutch and German. A number of short stories and one page gags have been collected in comic books next to the regular series. By 2008, Smurf comics have been translated into 25 languages, and some 25 million albums have been sold.
Papyrus is a Belgian comic book series, written and illustrated by Lucien De Gieter. The story takes place in Ancient Egypt. It was first published in 1974 in Spirou magazine in the form of episodes.
L'Élève Ducobu is a comic series created by Zidrou (scenario) and Godi (drawing). The series tells the adventures of Ducobu, a comic and eccentric dunce. The series first appeared in September, 1992, in the Belgian comics magazine Tremplin. The first album was published in 1997 by Le Lombard and from this year have appeared in the French comics magazine Le Journal de Mickey.
Yves Sente is a Belgian comic book editor and author. He is known as a writer for XIII, Blake and Mortimer and Thorgal.
Astérix et ses amis is a tribute volume published in 2007 by Les Editions Albert René. The full original title is Astérix et ses Amis – Hommage à Albert Uderzo. It was released to pay tribute to Albert Uderzo, for his 80th birthday. Not part of the original Asterix series, it is made up of several short stories drawn and written by various renowned comics artists.
Western is a Franco-Belgian one shot comic written by Jean Van Hamme, illustrated by Grzegorz Rosinski and published by Le Lombard in French and Cinebook in English.
Adler is a Belgian comic series written and drawn by the Belgian author René Sterne (1952–2006) and colored by his wife Chantal De Spiegeleer.
Hans is a science fiction Franco-Belgian comic with the story written by the Belgian writer André-Paul Duchâteau and drawn by Polish artists Grzegorz Rosiński and later by Zbigniew Kasprzak (Kas). It was published from 1980 to 2000 and has been collected in twelve volumes published in France by Le Lombard. It has also been translated into Polish, German, Italian, and Greek.
Chninkel or The Great Power of Chninkel is a Franco-Belgian comic with the story written by the Belgian writer Jean Van Hamme and the art drawn by the Polish artist Grzegorz Rosiński. First published from 1986 to 1987 in black and white, and later republished in color and translated to several languages, it mixes the genres of fantasy, science fiction and Biblical parables. It follows the adventures of a diminutive humanoid J'on, who suddenly finds himself tasked with saving the world. It has been called one of the first graphic novels in the history of Franco-Belgian comics.
